Wisconsin Communities Call for Restored Funding for Public Schools

Wisconsin Communities Call for Restored Funding for Public SchoolsPublic education advocacy teams from around the state have united through the Wisconsin Public Education Network to issue the following statement:

We represent parents and communities from around Wisconsin who believe that every child deserves equal access to an excellent public education.

Since 1993, our ability to locally control and fund our schools has been restricted by revenue limits. During the last decade, funding has stagnated and revenue limits have actually been frozen for the past two years. Funding for students with disabilities has been capped for eight years and Wisconsin schools are still reeling from the largest funding cuts in history, a cumulative decrease of $2.6 billion since 2011 according to the State of Wisconsin Legislative Fiscal Bureau.

A revenue limit increase of at least $300 per pupil per year, with sufficient aid support from the state, would be a step of good faith toward restoring that lost funding and reinvesting our tax dollars where they belong: in the success of the 850,000-plus children attending Wisconsin’s excellent public schools.

Wisconsin children have paid the price for tax cuts and other state spending long enough. Restoring funding to the public schools that are the heart of our communities should be the first priority in the 2017-2019 budget, and that restoration begins with an increase to the revenue limit of at least $300/student.